From the ashes of the thriving underground punk scene in Brighton in 1979, a band of songwriters called The Smartees emerged. They never made any records but after their demise one of the guitarists, Carl Evans, approached bass player Helen McCookerybook to ask her if she'd like to write some songs with him. He'd already set one of her poems, Food, to music, and they played their first gig with just three songs, each of which lasted just over two minutes: you can hear Food, Sweetie and Boasting on this compilation. The Chefs original drummer, Rod Bloor, contributed the seeds of the song Records and Tea before returning to his native Manchester. Soon, augmented by James McCallum on additional guitar and Russell Greenwood on drums, the songwriting duo started recording for local label Attrix records, firstly two tracks on their Vaultage 79 album, followed by the Sweetie EP and then 24Hours which was championed by BBC Radio 1's John Peel, who invited them to do a session. A residency at The Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, London, tempted them all to relocate to the big city, and a move to Graduate Records saw the re-release of 24 Hours. Graduate also commissioned the album tracks included here, which were languishing in the band attic and have not been released until now. The band split up in 1982, heading in different musical directions: Helen switched to guitar and formed Helen and the Horns, Carl formed Yip Yip Coyote, Russell joined John Hegley's Popticians, and James left the music industry. In our short three years we'd spent hundreds of hours writing and rehearsing our songs, recorded three sessions for the BBC, appeared on two compilations, piqued the interest of top pop producer Pete Waterman, and played countless gigs around the UK. We thought we'd been together for thousands of years! We hope you enjoy our music.
